THE NINTH PRECINCT--The
boundaries of the Ninth Precinct are Houston Street, Hancock Street,
Bleecker Street, Carmine Street, Sixth Avenue, Fourteenth Street, and
the centre line of Thirteenth Avenue and Eleventh Street, and the west
track of the railroad in West Street. The station house if at No. 94
Charles Street. It was built for station house purposes, but it has
been altered and repaired, and is cramped and unhealthy, and the cells
are underground. The officers are: Captain, Theron S. Copeland; and
Sergeants, John A. Croker, John Kellaher, William Porcher, and James
B. Wilson. Croker was a Policeman in 1862, a Roundsman four years
later, and a Sergeant in 1872. Kellaher joined the force in 1861,
became Roundsman in 1874, and attained this rank in 1876. Porcher has
been in the department twenty-six years. He became Roundsman in 1865,
and has worn Sergeant's uniform fourteen years. Wilson is Porcher's
senior, so far as Police duty goes, nine months. In 1862 he became
Roundsman, and three years later was promoted.

CAPTAIN THERON S. COPELAND was born in Albany, this State, in 1831,
and moved to New York City in 1835. He was appointed a Patrolman in
1855, and was made Roundsman in July, 1857; was promoted to the next
rank in March, 1858, and went a step higher in October, 1862. He has
performed duty in the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, Thirteenth,
Twenty-second, and Twenty-fifth Precincts. By reason of Captain
Copeland's superior knowledge of military tactics, gained by serving
in the National guard, and at a military school, he was detailed by
the Police Board to instruct the force in military tactics. For this
purpose he was assigned to the Central Office, where he remained for a
period of sixteen years, five of which hew was at the head of the
class of instruction, and for two year aid to the Superintendent. He
succeeded so well in this branch of the service that when the draft
riots occurred in July, 1863, the Police force of this city, by this
knowledge of military tactics and discipline, were able to meet and
overcome the rioters, who outnumbered them a hundred to one, and
earned for themselves a world-wide renown. Captain Copeland has
participated in nearly all of the prominent Police events that have
taken place since he joined the force. In recognition of his services
in the draft riots the Police Board awarded him special honourable
mention, a like distinction being bestowed on him by the board for the
part he took in the Orange riots in 1871. In 1862 he was sent in
command of three hundred and fifty officers and men to Riker's Island,
to quell a mutiny that has broken out among a large crowd of men who
were quartered there. He was also sent in command of fifty men to
quell a similar disturbance at Camp Washington, Staten Island, and
subsequently to Tarrytown to suppress rioting while men were being
drafted for the war. On the application of General Bowen, Captain
Copeland was mustered into the United States military service as
Adjutant, for the purpose of organizing the Second Metropolitan
Regiment (One Hundred and Thirty-third New York Volunteers), a duty
which was performed in thirty days. The regiment proved to be one of
the best in the service, many of the ex-members of the Police force in
its ranks. Captain Copeland has made a number of important arrests,
and has been several times injured in the discharge of his duty.

There are seventeen day and thirty-four night posts in this
precinct. The force is eighty-seven men, reduced to about sixty-eight
by sickness and details. John Flanagan and James B. Ayers are the
Precinct Detectives. The detailed men are: A. M. De Nyse Christopher
Street Ferry; Charles E. Bush, Jefferson Market; Robert B. Pitcairn,
Corporation Ordinances; and Robert Kelly, Special Duty.

The Ninth Precinct was at one time the stronghold of the Native
Americans. Today more people of the middle class own or occupy their
own homes, despite the tendency to coalesce, or herd in flat,
apartment or tenement houses, than in any other precinct. Its streets
are quiet, cobble-stoned; and its iniquities, according to the Police
record, few. It guards the Jefferson Market, Police Court and Prison,
which are of the few architectural ornaments of the city. Gansevoort
Market, which within a year will be one of the most important markets
for provisions in the city, St. Vincent's hospital, and a section of
upper-tenderloin in West fourteenth Street. Its West Streets front
embraces important interests, and within its boundaries are the walls
of the old State Prison. Few events of magnitude occur here.

THE FIFTEENTH PRECINCT--the Fifteenth Precinct's boundaries are:
the Bowery, Fourth Avenue, Fourteenth Street, Sixth Avenue, Carmine
Street, Bleecker Street, Hancock Street, Houston Street, Broadway and
Bleecker Street. The station house is at Nos. 251 and 253 Mercer
Street, which were dwelling houses turned into a station house, when
the station house was in Ambrose H. Kingsland's stable opposite. This
stable was the quarters of engine company No. 4, of which Excise
Commissioners John J. Morris was foreman; and it afterwards became the
quarters of Engine company No. 33, afterwards moved to Great Jones
Street. The building is in fair order, and has a separate prison. The
officers are: Captain, John J. Brogan; and Sergeants, Donald Grant,
James J. Brophy, Joseph Douglas, and John J. Thompson. Grant's dates
are: Patrolman 1876, Roundsman 1877, and Sergeant 1880. Brophy went on
the force in 1871, was Roundsman in 1876, and he got his rank two
years later. Douglas became Patrolman 1868, Roundsman 1870, and
Sergeant the same year. Thompson, the senior Sergeant, was appointed
in 1860, and waited seventeen years to be Roundsman; four years after
this he was promoted.

CAPTAIN JOHN J. BROGAN, of the fifteenth Precinct, is a New Yorker,
and was born in the year 1844. While at school he generally occupied
himself with drawing on the black board deeds of chivalry and heroism,
for which breach of discipline he often received a flogging from his
schoolmaster. He was apprenticed at any early age to the theatrical
scene painting trade, but he disliked the business, his physical
organization demanding a more active occupation. Accordingly, when he
was twenty-one years of age, he joined the Police force, and was sent
to the Second Precinct.

Captain Brogan was only a fortnight on the force when he made his
first arrest, or rather arrests, for there were two burglars engaged
in the robbery. As he was on his beat in Maiden Lane, he noticed the
door of a fur store open. He waited and waited. Soon two desperadoes
made their appearance, loaded with goods. One of them, as soon as he
saw Brogan, laid down his plunder and struck at him with a jimmy.
Brogan put up his arms to guard the blow, but the jimmy broke one of
his fingers. He, however, secured his men. They were Tom Harris and
Michael Galvin. They were convicted, and sent to State Prison.

Soon after this, while the remains of the murdered President
Lincoln were lying in City Hall, Brogan observed a well-known thief
name Williams picking pockets in the crowd. Brogan approached the
ruffian, who fled and was followed by the officer as far as the corner
of Chatham and William Streets. There Brogan shot him in the leg, and
the thief, not being able to go any further, was arrested.

In 1867, while Officer Brogan was doing Detective duty at Staten
Island, a society called the ancient Order of Good fellows gave a
picnic on a Sunday in that place, and insisted on having all the
refreshments they required. On some of the saloon keepers refusing to
supply them, a riot ensued, but was very quickly quelled, owing to the
foresight and determination of Detective Brogan.

While in the Sixth Precinct Captain Brogan made the arrest of a
very tough character named "Country" Nolan, who was trying
to rob an old gentleman in Donovan's Lake, behind Baxter Street. A
desperate encounter took place between Nolan and the officer, but the
robber at last was overcome. He was sent to Sing Sing.

George smith, a Negro, shot and killed his paramour, a white woman,
in 1879. After the murder smith tried to conceal himself among the
colored folks in the Eighth Ward, and afterwards went on board of a
vessel bound south. He, however, could not escape Captain Brogan's
vigilance. As the vessel was about to sail, that officer went quietly
onboard and arrested his man.

He was made Captain in September, 1878, and was placed in charge of
the Fourteenth Precinct. He was shortly afterwards transferred to the
Fifteenth, where he is at present stationed.

Towards the end of the year 1880 Captain Brogan and Detective
Crowley saw four men enter the store of James McCreery & company,
at the corner of Eleventh Street and Broadway. The Captain and
Detective followed them, and a regular fusilade was opened on both
sides. Two of the burglars were wounded. Their names were Tommy Fay,
Dutch Fred, Tom Maypother, and John Brown alias Turk. They were sent
to State Prison for five years each.

Soon after this a Sergeant of the regular Army shot and killed a
boy at Albany. The Sergeant fled, but Captain Brogan succeeded in
finding him in this city.

But the most important achievement of Capt. Brogan's Police service
was the capture and conviction of the notorious Mrs. Johnson, a Swede,
who used to induce young girls to emigrate, and when they landed at
Castle Garden, she took possession of them body and soul.

This precinct has sixteen day and thirty-two night posts.
Eighty-one men are on the roll, but about sixty-seven do duty,
sickness and details reducing the effective force. The Precinct
Detectives are William Warren and Thomas Reynolds. The detailed men
are Manuel A. White, Juvenile Asylum; Edward Gilgar, Ordinances; John
J. Farley, Clinton Place and Sixth Avenue; John Fogarty, Fifth Avenue
and Fourteenth Street; John Cunningham, St. Joseph's Home; James
McAdams, Fourteenth Street and University Place; and Benjamin Tesaro,
Detective and Interpreter's duty at Police Headquarters' Detective
Bureau.

People of every condition are under the protection or surveillance
of the Fifteenth Precinct. Wooster Street has its dissolute Negroes,
Fifth Avenue its aristocrats, Minetta Lane and Bleecker Street their
Negroes, Waverly Place and Clinton Place their boarding houses,
Broadway, fourteenth Street and Sixth Avenue their tradesmen. There is
a little of everything in this precinct, but it is principally
occupied by either the respectable or the wealthy classes. In this
command are the Star theatre and the Union Square Theatre, Washington
Park, and Grace Church, some of the finest stores in the city, among
them the Stewart Building, the University Building, the Excise Office,
the Bleecker Street Savings Bank--one of the richest institutions of
the kind in the world, the Astor and Mercantile Libraries, the Mission
of the Immaculate Virgin, the Brevoort House, Grand Central, New York
and other hotels, and Society Library. Such a precinct requires and
possesses a circumspect body of Police, equal to any emergency, and it
is daily mentioned in the press as having furnished at the Jefferson
Market, or Police Headquarters, or the Coroner's Office, some tale of
interest. The most stirring incidents of the past few years are the
killing of James Fisk, Jr., by Edward S. Stokes, at the Grand Central
Hotel twelve years ago; the burglary on the twenty-seventh of October,
1878, by which the Manhattan Savings Institution lost two million
seven hundred and forty-seven thousand seven hundred dollars, in money
and securities, and the burning, on the sixth of March, 1877, of
Jewelers hall, Nos. 1, 3, and 5 Bond Street, where six hundred
thousand dollars' worth of property was destroyed. Inspectors Byrnes,
Murray, and Dilks were graduated from this command.

THE SIXTEENTH PRECINCT--The sixteenth Precinct is almost a
parallelogram, who sides are Fourteenth Street, Seventh Avenue,
Twenty-seventh Street, and the North River. The station house, at No.
230 West Twentieth Street, is a very old one, constructed out of a
dwelling house. It is snug and healthy, but the cells are underground
and an extra story was added to the building seventeen years ago. The
officers are: Captain, John McElwain; and Sergeants, Daniel Polhamus,
William Blair, James Lonsdale and Oliver H. Tims. Polhamus was a
Policeman in 1861, a Roundsman in 1865, and a Sergeant in 1867. Blair,
the senior Sergeant, joined the force in 1858, was made Roundsman in
1863, and was promoted the next year. Lonsdale was appointed in 1862,
became Roundsman six years later, and got rank in 1869. The dates of
Tims are: Patrolman 1866, Roundsman 1870, and Sergeant 1872.

CAPTAIN JOHN McELWAIN, of the Sixteenth Precinct, was born in New
York in November, 1831. His parents were well off, and he received a
thoroughly good education. He served his time to the jewelry business,
and he worked in some employment for several years. He joined the
force on the second of September, 1872, and was assigned to the
Fifteenth Precinct. During his stay here the draft riots broke out.
and he took part in quelling the disturbance. For his conduct in these
riots he was promoted to the rank of Roundsman, and was transferred to
the Twenty-first, and afterwards to the Seventeenth. While here he was
made Sergeant, and transferred to the Eleventh. He was afterwards
successively stationed at the Twenty-third, eighteenth, and
Twenty-ninth. He was made Captain in September, 1872, and went to the
Twenty-first. He was then transferred to the Twentieth, then returned
to the Twenty-first, then to the Twenty-third. He went back again to
the Twenty-first, then to the Seventh, and finally to the Sixteenth.

Captain McElwain is an exceptional, shrewd officer. It is said that
he an tell a thief at the first glance.

He arrested Scannel for the murder of Thomas Donoghue, at Apollo
Hall, November 29, 1872, for which he was presented with an elegant
gold medal by the Commissioners. The medal is inscribed with the names
of B. F. Manierre, Thomas Bosworth, Thomas J. Barr, and A. Oakey Hall.

During his Captaincy of the Twentieth Precinct he was instrumental
in obtaining convictions which amounted in the aggregate to three
hundred and twenty-three years.

Minnie Davis, the notorious fire bug, was also arrested by him, as
also George West alias Davis, who, four days after his capture, was
amusing himself breaking stones in Sing Sing Prison.

Captain McElwain was complimented by Commissioner Acton, in his
annual report to the legislature, for his action in quelling a
disturbance raised by the Live Oak Volunteers, who were on an
excursion to Astoria. The Volunteers went about that town ransacking
it, and terrifying the inhabitants. There were only a few men at the
station house when this intelligence arrived, but Captain McElwain
decided on at one going to Astoria. He concealed himself and his me in
the ferryboat until its arrival at that place. He then suddenly
precipitated himself on the rioters, and, after a severe struggle,
arrested the ringleaders.

While Captain McElwain was one day pursuing the notorious cart
thief, Wilson, he was attacked by Wilson, and both fell to the ground.
After a fearful struggle, Wilson, however, went under, and was taken
to the Police Station.

During his Captaincy of the Twentieth Precinct, the citizens
presented Captain McElwain with a very complementary testimonial.

Galvin and McGinn, who knocked down and robbed Mr. Hanks, the
jeweler, were also arrested by Captain McElwain. This was considered a
very clever capture, as there was no clue whatever at the time to the
perpetrators of the outrage. The Captain, for this, was publicly
complimented by Recorder Hackett from the Bench.

"Fagan," whose proper name is Isaac Lycres, was a
notorious receiver of stolen goods. He was so adroit at his work that
it was very difficult for the Police to get at him. Captain McElwain
worked up the case so well that he managed to secure "Fagan"
and recover thousands of dollars' worth of goods.

This precinct has eighteen day and twenty-eight night posts. Its
full force is seventy-three men, but the average of them doing full
duty is sixty-two. Adolph Schmidt and Richard Wilson are the Precinct
Detectives. The detailed officers are: John Ferguson, Truancy; Richard
Flynn, ordinances; Patrick W. Vallely, Twenty-third Street Ferry.

The Sixteenth Precinct Police have to deal with both rich and poor,
from those who inhabit the fine residences in West Fourteenth Street
to those who lounge about the lumber years of the North River front,
which represents three-quarters of the lumber interest of New York. It
has the Twenty-third Street Ferry, the Grand Opera House, the bath and
flat houses in West Twenty-third Street, and the tradesmen of Seventh
and Eighth Avenues. The most stirring event of late years within its
boundaries was the Orange Riots of 1873, and the firing of the
military in eighth Avenue, near Twenty-third Street. A score of
persons were killed outright, and it is estimated that as many more
died afterwards. The bodies of those that fell in the streets were
transported to the station house, and laid out in the basement. Old
officers of the command yet remember the wails that were uttered by
those who came to claim their dead. Another tragic event was the
shooting, at the Vienna Flats, No. 341 West Twenty-third Street, of W.
H. Haverstick by George W. Conkling, brother of Mrs. Uhler, with whom
Haverstick lived in defiance of decency. This occurred March 19, 1883.
Since then Conkling died out West and Mrs. Uhler poisoned herself.
Another mysterious occurrence was the killing, in the grounds of the
Protestant Episcopal General Theological Seminary, at Twentieth Street
and Ninth Avenue, on the morning of July 4, 1879, of John F. Seymour,
of Bishop Seymour' s family. He was walking in the grounds and was, it
is supposed, killed by a small bullet discharged from a boy's toy
pistol or rifle.

THE TWENTIETH PRECINCT.--the Twentieth Precinct begins at
Twenty-seventh Street, goes along Seventh Avenue and runs to
Forty-second Street, and the North River. The station house is at Nos.
434 and 436 West Thirty-seventh Street. When it was built, fourteen
years ago, it was considered a vast improvement on any other that
existed. It was a separate prison, and is so well looked after as to
be always wholesome and healthy. The officers are; Captain, George
Washburn; and Sergeants: Andrew J. Thomas, William F. Devery, George
H. Havens, and Stephen E. Brown. Thomas has been on the force twelve
years. He was made Sergeant last year after doing seven months; duty
as Roundsman. Devery's dates are: Patrolman 1878, Roundsman 1881, and
Sergeant 1884. Havens' are: Patrolman in 1861, Roundsman in 1863; and
Sergeant in 1866. Brown was appointed in 1868, was made Roundsman in
1870, and three years later obtained promotion.

CAPTAIN WASHBURN was born on the ninth of June, 1826, in the city
of New York. At the age of four years his parents moved to Sing Sing,
where he resided until he was fifteen years old. He traveled round the
world for four years, having served alternately as sailor and soldier.
In February, 1858, he was appointed on the Police, where he served
until august, 1862, when he joined the Metropolitan Regiment as First
Lieutenant. After one year's service he was promoted to Captain, and
fifteen months later he rose to the rank of Major, which position he
retained until the end of the war. He served under General Banks and
General Sheridan. Upon returning from the war he was re-appointed a
Patrolman, and five days later he was promoted Roundsman, and within a
week from that date he was made a Sergeant, that being his rank on the
Police force when he resigned to go to the war. After serving as a
Sergeant for three years he was raised to the rank of Captain. He took
part in the Orange riot, and was on that day second in command, under
Captain Walling.

This precinct has thirteen day and twenty-eight night posts. Its
full force is seventy-eight men, from which an average of seventeen
should be deducted for sickness and details. Stephen Carmick and
Matthew McConnell are the precinct Detectives. John W. King on
Ordinances; and John Murphy to the Offal Dock.

In the Twentieth Precinct are few public buildings of any note. It
has a busy waterfront, crowded with repulsive industries, such as hog
and cattle abattoirs. The offal dock, and the terminus of the Hudson
River Railroad Depot make constant traffic along grimy eleventh
Avenue. Within the precinct limits are the Institution for the Blind,
Manhattan Market, the West shore depot and ferry, large gas works,
"Battle Row" and "Hell's Kitchen," the resort of
the depraved adults of both sexes, and a hundred other dwelling places
of the New York hoodlum, who only exists in this district. The
"Tenth Avenue Gang" is what they are wrongly called. They
belong to all parts of the city, but this is their stronghold, and
their plunder is from the freight cars on the Hudson River Railroad.
This precinct has furnished more frightful examples of juvenile
depravity than all the other precincts together since 1870. One of the
leaders of the gang was "Dutch" Harmon, a German freight car
thief. On the sixth of February, 1874, he was planning a depredation,
when he was surprised by Roundsman Stephen Carmick, and escaped after
firing at the officer. On the eighteenth of that month Nicholas
Schweich, a Hudson River Railroad watchmen, was murdered at his post
because he interfered with thieves who were robbing a freight car. The
police say positively that he murder was committed by Harmon, or an
associate named Dougherty. Harmon was sought for, and office Patrick
Lahey, on the twenty-second of February, 1874, believed that he had
corner Harmon at No. 530 West Twenty-ninth Street, and fired a shot
through the door, supposing Harmon had his back to it. The shot killed
an innocent man named McNamara and Harmon was not in the house. He was
caught nine days later, but could not be convicted for the murder of
the watchman. Since then he has served two terms in prison, and broke
his leg in this city while escaping out of a hack at Fulton Street. In
the hack were silks stolen from a factory at Union Hill, N. J.

THE TWENTY-FIFTH PRECINCT.--The Twenty-fifth Precinct or Broadway
Squad's daily territory is Broadway from Bowling Green to
Thirty-fourth Street. The station house is at No. 34 East Twenty-ninth
Street, where are the quarters of the Second Inspection District. The
building is private property owned by the Goelet estate, and was not
erected for Police purposes, but transformed into a station house
thirty-seven years ago, when the Eighteenth Precinct had its
headquarters there. It was afterwards the Twenty-first Precinct
Station House and the Twenty-ninth Precinct station House. A prison
was added in 1877. The officers are: Captain, Ira S. Garland;
Sergeants, Washington T. Devoe whose dates are: Patrolman 1861,
Roundsman 1872, and Sergeant 1873, and William H. Lefferts, who as a
Patrolman prior to 1857, and passing the grade of Roundsman, was
promoted in 1858.